17 March 1992
Addie opened her eyes on a Tuesday and stretched. Looking up, she could see the hangings around her bed in Hufflepuff colours. Around her she could hear…nothing. She breathed a sigh of relief. Even when she was trying to sleep at night, she could always hear the other girls in her dormitory talking, so such quiet without wearing one of her pairs of earplugs was a novelty. It was a busy day for her, with classes and homework, so she laid for a moment, breathing in the calm. From the clock on her bedside table, she could tell that it was 05:00. Not quite time to get properly out of bed. She was feeling weirdly alert, which was not a situation she usually found herself in. Swinging her legs out of her bed, her feet met her hedgehog slippers in the exact spot she always left them in. After a few days of getting out of bed and actively flinching, she had asked someone if she could borrow a catalogue and had ordered herself a pair. She had not regretted it for a moment since.
Figuring that she had some time to do some work before breakfast, she quickly got dressed and made her way downstairs to the common room. There was no lunch club today, as Professor Sprout had something else on. That meant that she did have some time that she could spend in the library, so early morning work was not so much of a pressing concern. Hufflepuffs were not known for being early risers, so the Common Room was completely empty, the remnants of good cheer from the night before still evident. Addie imagined that the other houses had early risers, but Hufflepuff valued sleep. The entire common room was covered with mugs (which she was not quite naïve enough to think of being used to drink tea or Horlicks) and board games still in mid play. It was term time, but the House of Hufflepuff didn't let this inconvenient fact prevent them from going hard.
This was not to say that she had been part of this. Part of this was due to her being eleven and therefore not at a stage at which she could understand the motivations of others in her house. The main reason, however, was due to the structure of Hufflepuff. Hufflepuff was made up of two parts. True Hufflepuffs, and pity sorts. True Hufflepuffs were loyal to a fault, hardworking and partied hard while pity sorts generally only had one of those traits, and quite a lot of the time, the trait in question was a reach. These were the people who didn't really fit in any of the other houses, all of which had requirements of current or potential traits. Hufflepuff however, being the house of kindness and non-conformity, were welcoming to all, were aware of this unspoken rule, and welcomed the misfits with gusto. Addie was one of these.
Addie got on her warm, thick coat, for although she was not planning on going outside, the castle was draughty. She had never been up this early before. Why on earth would she want to be? The halls were dark, so she lit her want, making her mind up that she would go and explore some parts of the Castle she had never been to before. The castle was usually too busy for her to go on such expeditions, but having got up early enough, she now had about an hour. After that, she would go and get to breakfast early and do some reading before class.
For half an hour, she wandered the halls of Hogwarts. She saw portraits that she had never seen before (asleep as she should be) and strange corners that were probably not any less scary in the light. Hogwarts seemed to have no shortage of such corners. She took the opportunity to have a look around the old library where there was no shortage of books that she had never read before. She briefly considered going to just have a look at the forbidden door but decided against it in favour of running away. She was just pondering whether a dark patch on the wall was dry rot or a shadow when a voice came from behind her.
"Ooh an ickle firstie."
Expecting the worst, which would of course be Filch, she turned around slowly. What would her punishment be? Would this be the cause of her first detention? She knew that the school had regulations on not hitting children, but corporal punishment in private schools across the UK had not been outlawed. Hogwarts was an oddity and would have still been subject to UK laws made by the Wizengamot were secondary legislation, but she actually wasn't sure what Hogwarts was. It had all the hallmarks of a private school, yet magical young people from all backgrounds seemed to attend. She supposed that that was something to catch up on. This uncertainty made her stomach turn over and over. At primary school, corporal punishment had been illegal for the last few years, but this was new territory.
However, catching sight of her observers, she was able to breathe a sigh of relief. She didn't really know any of the Weasleys other than that Weasley, but surely even these two unknown Weasleys were better than Filch.
"Hello…"
"Fred," said one of the Weasley twins, now identified as Fred.
"and George," said the other, presumably George.
Addie looked between them trying to catalogue their differences and hoping, more than anything that they weren't pranking her.
"Hello Fred and George," she said uncertainly, wondering why they were talking to her of all people.
The Weasley twins were universally liked while also being viewed with a degree of trepidation. Addie had never talked to them before and blamed their connection to Ron.
"You must be Harry's gingerer half," said Fred.
"I know the feeling," said George. "Your hair is at least 3 tones gingerer than mine."
"And I'm handsomer," said Fred, confidently. "My twin has never decided to get sorted into another house and started ignoring me before though."
"Well I know that feeling," Addie admitted.
"What do you mean…"
"…you know that feeling?"
"You've never talked to Harry once."
Addie felt her face redden in anger, but resolved to keep her cool. "I'm sorry to tell you that you might have got the wrong end of the stick," she told them firmly and as diplomatically as she could. "I don't know what Harry has been saying about me, but I assure you that I haven't murdered his childhood best friend, stolen all his worldly goods or smited his crops."
"That's not what he told us," Fred said cooly. "From what we've heard, you're a nightmare and always stop him from being able to make friends."
"Yeah, there's a reason why Ron's his first friend," George continued with absolute certainty.
"Well, if that's what you think, I can't help you," she turned with the intention of storming off dramatically, "and if he hadn't randomly abandoned me on the train and we'd had a chance to talk about it, I would have known where to aim for."
Both the boys looked fairly stunned so she decided to continue. "A is for Adelaide, H is for Harry. If he had wanted us to stay together, he should have aimed for Hufflepuff. He might have not got in…" the traitor, "…but he could have given it a go." And with that, she turned on her heel and walked away.
Later in the day, during mid-morning break, Addie entered the library – main library – and looked around. It was very busy – as was typical, but her usual remote corner was not available. She looked along the sea of faces to see if she recognised anyone, and the person her eye settled on first was Harry's new friend, due to the distinctiveness of his hair. Ron was sitting with other people from their class who she recognised. Dean & Seamus and of course, Harry. They looked confused to see her but said nothing when she sat down slightly further along the long table they were sitting at. They had clearly been in the middle of a conversation and got back to it.
"So, there's a spot near the lake that I think would be perfect. I'm sure we could arrange pumpkin pasties and lemonade and maybe even ice cream. I've asked everyone in our year, even the Hufflepuffs." Ron seemed to be leading the conversation.
"But what about Slytherin?" Dean Thomas interjected.
"What about Slytherin?" Seamus replied before they all burst into laughter.
"Is this about the end of term picnic?" Hermione Granger, who Harry and Ron seemed to have become friends with asked as she dumped a large book on the table before sitting down. "I've been asking around and have made a list of everyone who can come. Everyone except Susan Bones can make it. She's going home early for a family thing."
"That's a shame, but we'll have enough people for a few chess games," Ron said excitedly.
"Football too," Dean added. "It's been ages since I've had the time for a kick about."
"Yeah, sure!" Ron said enthusiastically, although it was very clear that he had no idea what football was.
To Addie's ears, it sounded as though they were planning an end of term picnic after exams. How exciting! She didn't know why she hadn't heard of it before, but now she was aware, wanted to tell them about her personal favourite game from Primary School. Lots of running.
"How about rounders?" She said after trying to hold it in.
"What about it?" Hermione replied. Addie was about to explain it although she had no doubt that Hermione, a muggle born who had gone to a muggle school (albeit a private school so perhaps they had just played cricket) would know about it.
"Wait, you think you're invited?" Ron said mockingly. He had never actually talked directly to her before and she had no idea as to what he had against her. She and Harry didn't talk anymore. She wondered what he had told his new friend about her.
"It would skew the numbers," Hermione said kindly, shrugging.
"But it doesn't sound like you've figured out teams or anything," Addie responded, "you seem to be quite early on in your planning..."
"It would skew the numbers," Hermione said again, this time more firmly and far less nicely. "You can't seriously expect people to change their plans and cater to you just because you ask them to."
"But you don't seem to have made a final plan yet. Surely..."
"Seriously, take the hint, weirdo. Clearly nobody wants you there!" Seamus said brashly and everyone else, even Harry, started nodding.
"Sisters, right mate," Ron said under his breath to Harry. "Nightmares." Harry looked quickly up from where he had been staring at the table and glanced between the two of them before nodding his agreement.
"Yeah, don't know how I managed with just her to talk to for all those years."
Addie felt as though she had been slapped. Suddenly, the library seemed louder than ever, and she knew that she had to get out of there before she said anything else. In her hurry to leave, she knocked over her chair and she scrambled to return it to rights before trying to get out of there even sooner. Behind her, she could hear the laughter from the group and a few of the surrounding tables who seemed to have caught on to the fact that something embarrassing had happened.
She crashed out of the library door 'Walk don't run' coming from behind her. She had no time to listen to Madam Pince. What mattered was getting away from them, from him. Surely whatever she had done was not equal to this? Surely by now, Harry would feel as though he had tortured her enough to even them up. She had never thought that being ignored so thoroughly could hurt. She felt as though half of her was missing, and as it was missing, she was broken. Since she had been aware that she was weird, she had been able to deal with it. She had never thought that anything was missing. Now, she felt like half a person.
Perhaps it was chance, perhaps it was the fates looking down on her, but the person who she happened to crash into on her way out of the library just so happened to be Neville.